Behind the Music: How Video Game Soundtracks Are Made

We talk to the team behind Borderlands 2’s soundtrack about the creative process.

When it comes to making a lasting impression, video games have no better tool than music. While gameplay, graphics and story mechanics are often in the spotlight, a game’s soundtrack can enrich the experience like nothing else and make a game into a lasting memory. While plenty of games have high-profile soundtracks, famous guest composers and even concert tours, the actual process behind creating that music is something we rarely see explained.

To find out more about how composers create music that makes a lasting impression, we spoke to Jesper Kyd, Cris Velasco and Sascha Dikiciyan, the team behind the upcoming soundtrack for Borderlands 2

“I don’t think there is one specific way to score a game,” Kyd told IGN. “It really depends on a lot of things. For example, during what stage of the development process the music production starts. If the game is still in early alpha I tend to use the concept art that the team is using as well. That’s how I composed some of the Darksiders 2 music. For Assassin’s Creed, there was a lot of focus towards creating a unique signature sound. On Borderlands 2 the game was far along in development so I used concept art, screenshots and gameplay videos for the writing process.”

“For Borderlands 2, sometimes all I needed to see was a picture of some mutant with a stunted baby head wielding a gun that shoots acid, and I’d think to myself, ‘I know just what this needs,’" Velasco added. “The only time we’re really aligning music with a specific sequence is for cut scenes and cinematics. Those are no different than scoring a mini movie.”

The differences between scoring games and a TV show or movie mostly end there, as video games are different for every player. “TV and movies are always set along the same path, so each time you watch a film, the story unfolds in the same way at the same time. In open world games, it’s impossible to know when the player decides to do this or that,” Kyd explained. “We try to come up with as much music for each possible scenario and work out which areas where the gamer will spend more or less time in order to create the appropriate length of the music tracks.”

“Even when a game forces you to walk down a certain corridor or jump over a chasm, there’s always an interactive element to it,” Velasco said. “Maybe I decide to have my character just stand there doing nothing for 5 minutes first. Maybe he runs a bit and then walks. Only in games do these sorts of situations happen. Game music has to take all that into account.”

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According to Velasco, different projects offer different amounts of completed footage, and the team doesn’t always come in at the same stage of development. “It all depends on the project and when we’re brought into it,” he told us. “It’s nice to be brought in early because it gives you a sense of really being part of the team. It feels more collaborative. Too early, though, and there won’t be much to see besides concept art or very rough gameplay. Usually, we start after the game has been in development for a good amount of time. With Borderlands 2, we got video captures of gameplay for almost every level that needed to be scored.”

“New sequences come in as they’re ready,” he continued. “Since we’re called in while the game is still in development, not everything is always ready for music at the same time. It’s sometimes nice to have it that way though so you don’t get overwhelmed with everything all at once. I’ve been called in as early as pre-production to help talk about new ways to implement the score, all the way to having two weeks to write two hours of music for a game that’s about to go gold.”

Maybe I decide to have my character just stand there doing nothing for 5 minutes first. Maybe he runs a bit and then walks. Only in games do these sorts of situations happen. Game music has to take all that into account.

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Unlike in movies and TV, game composers have to be careful not to repeat any one theme too often. “The thing about games is that if it takes 20-30 hours to complete the game, you have to be careful not to bring it back too often since hearing the same theme in different variations too many times during a 30-hour game can become annoying and even drive the player to mute the music,” Kyd pointed out. For that reason, he tends to divide his score by area, composing different a theme for each separate environment.

“For Borderlands 2, I wrote themes for the different areas,” Kyd explained. “So there are themes for the Ice area, the Sanctuary theme is for your home town, and there is the Interlude theme which has a more Western feel. The Welcome to Fyrestone track also makes a return with an entirely new arrangement to reflect the more industrial-developed feel of this area. Welcome to Fyrestone is the closest we have to a main theme in the original Borderlands so it was important to bring this theme back and give it a reboot. There is also a crazy bandit theme which I reference in several of my bandits tracks.”

“There are a few games that don’t really need a ‘main theme,'” Velasco added. “Borderlands 2 is one of those. The music supports the game in an entirely different way I think. Rather than having themes or motifs for the characters, the music instead becomes another color in the overall palette of the game. It’s more of a soundtrack for the whole Borderlands world or experience, rather than picking out anything specific to spotlight. That’s not really a good option for a lot of games, but for Borderlands 2 I think it works great.”

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Both Kyd and Velasco have worked with vastly different-sized orchestras, all of which required a different approach to come up with a central, unified sound. “The largest ensemble I’ve worked with was an 89-piece orchestra and a 60-person choir on Hitman: Blood Money,” Kyd said. “Other times smaller ensembles are preferable. It really depends on the project. For Borderlands 2, I use live performers on almost every track. I worked on getting the anarchy vibe going and recorded with everything from steel pedal guitars to harmonicas.”

“I’m generally working with orchestras from 40-70 players,” Velasco said. “We mostly record up at Skywalker Sound. Those players are so amazing that 70 players sounds like 100 most of the time. Not everything needs a huge orchestra though. I recently recorded a string quintet for a project and I love the sound we got. It’s very raw and aggressive. Definitely not a sound you’d get from a large ensemble.”

Even with all the work that goes into creating each track, Kyd said that some songs need to change as development moves along, but few are ever scrapped entirely. “Things sometimes look a lot different from how they were conceptualized and sometimes things are changed radically,” he explained. “With games being such massive worlds, if the track in question embodies the atmosphere and style of the game we usually find another place to put any unused music. In my experience when composing for games, it’s rare that any music goes unused.”

“Of course, when it happens, it’s not a big deal,” Dikiciyan added. “In the end, the developer needs to be happy.”

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All three composers are big gamers and try to play the games they’re working on not only after they’re completed, but throughout development when possible. “It’s important to get a feel for the in-game experience and how the game plays,” Kyd said. “Sometimes videos accompany each cue and description but then you are at the mercy of the game player. Does he play it fast or slow? Other times I get the background story for a certain area and then compose the music based on that.” After the game, Kyd says he always likes to go back to play the finished product. “I like to know exactly how the music was used and implemented and have a lot of interest in improving the implementation of music in games. I really enjoy coming up with ideas for new music systems and using music in unusual ways.”

“I always make time to play through the games that I work on,” Velasco said. “I just don’t always have the extra time to play much else unless it’s something I’ve been really waiting for. I’m very fortunate that a lot of the time the games I want to play are also those that I’ve written music for, like Mass Effect 3 and Borderlands 2.” “I don’t think you can be successful in this business if you’re not a gamer yourself,” Dikiciyan added. “Besides playing all the games we work on, I’m hooked on Battlefield 3 on the PC. I’m really a FPS gamer at heart, going back to the Quake and Doom days.”

As for game soundtracks, all three composers have favorites even among games they didn’t work on. “I really like the tone they set in BioShock,” Kyd said. “Such a creepy mood with the licensed songs and score working very well together.” “One of my favorites is definitely the Deus Ex: Human Revolution soundtrack,” said Dikiciyan. “Coming from an electronic background, I can totally identify with it.”